Pages

Skyscraper

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

It has finally come to this. It was a good run but as is the case with society, there are rules to keep order. Due to a host of very rude and crude comments that you can sample here, here and here just to show a few, I've had to switch on comment moderation.

These comments have been littered through most posts in the past few months and I don't feel having more of them would add anything to the discussion. Everyone already knows that I'm stupid, fat, an idiot, can't speel, a bad reviewer, a tight arse, have no vocabulary, have a double chin etc, so repeating it all in comments is just a waste of space.

Please note that I am referring to Anonymous, not my friend Oblivion, who ribs me but doesn't take it so far as to swear at me and abuse me like there's no tomorrow. And apparently, I deserve all this abuse because this blog is shitty and I know nothing. If that's a crime, 95% of cyberspace should be removed and their creators abused as well.

Rant over.

Thanks to everyone who has visited and commented with useful suggestions and opinions. As I keep repeating, you can disagree with me and say so, but just don't swear at me and abuse me.

All those stupid comments just stop other people from making real comments that may actually interest me.

I have said so many times, if he hates this blog so much, just don't read it. It does defie reason, but that's something I need to start to understand. Sometimes you just can't talk reason to some people.

Hi Thanh, trolls are sadly inevitable on the internet, but I agree it's pretty pathetic that a few douchebags cower behind anonymity like that.

I chose to moderate comments on my site too. The funny thing is that trolls tend to spend so much TIME visiting blogs they abuse and ostensibly hate!

I like to tag the ISP addresses (through Statcounter) of people who visit my site more than 20 times, to get an idea of regular visitors' reading habits. I tagged one of my lame trolls, and it's intersting to note that that person checks my site about four times a day, every day. Makes you wonder, huh?

Claire, I just don't understand the thinking of these people. If you hate my blog or any other site so much, just stop visiting it. No one is forcing you to. It's like they want to bully you into their views or something.

This person abusing me has a very unique ISP, so it was easy to track his activity. He would visit at 9am in the morning, 11am, 12pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm. I think after 7pm was when the restaurant got busy so no visits after that. For quite a few months, he was checking back on all the posts he had commented on all day. I guess it should have occurred to me that he wanted me to reply and get a reaction out of me. But such wasted energy is something I cannot fathom.

But my manager reminded me that the sooner I can accept that I cannot talk reason to some people, the less annoyed I will be.

I think moderating comments is a good idea. There's nothing wrong with fair comment and sensible criticism but when the few idiots overstep the mark, why bother giving them a platform? They are also not bright enough to realise web stats throw up some interesting facts and that commenting as "anonymous" isn't as anonymous as they think.

Hi Pat, how are you going? Nice to chat to you by the way. Good to meet yet another food blogger in Melbourne.

I gave this anonymous person many chances to give input about the things I wrote. But I just could not tolerate the constant insults and crude remarks about me. I'm all for free speech, but when you overstep it, it just becomes bullying and harassment.

I know this person's IP, but I wish I could find that where the IP related to in terms of location. Imagine if I sent abusive emails or made abusive phone calls to this person's restaurant everyday. He wouldn't like it, so why do it to me on this blog.